The location of the Pont de la Tournelle is the site of successive structures.

This bridge connected the Eastern bank of the Seine (le quai Saint-Bernard) to l'île Saint-Louis.

The Pont de la Tournelle was intentionally built lacking symmetry, in order to emphasize the shapeless landscape in the part of the Seine that it bestrides.

Consisting of a grand central arch that links the riverbanks via two smaller arches, one on each side, it's decorated on the Eastern bank with a pylon built on the left pier's cutwater, and a statue of Saint Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, atop of the pylon, designed by Polish-French monumental sculptor Paul Landowski.

The term "Tournelle" traces its origin to a square turret (French: tourelle) constructed at the end of the 12th Century on the fortress of Phillipe Auguste.